With all the snow, Summit Lake’s ski hill is open again, but now into new expanded digs. Visitors can now see the renovations that have been the sweat and love of volunteers, including an expanded ski shop with more room and more light. Volunteers are the heart of the little ski hill that could, building the lodge and the hill into more and more of a recreation centre for the area.
The expanded lodge is just one part of their efforts. Now situated over the new first aid station in the renovation, the shop has a large counter space as well as benches for skiers and snowboarders to try boots. And now ski tech Mel Paul has a bright, new space to sort and work on gear.
A good deal of the storage in the upstairs shop has been brought up from its previous home, some of it modified like the ski racks which have had wheels added making them easier to manoeuvre. The old boot-drying rack sits next to racks of increasing sizes of boots, and a rack for snowboards is in the works. A separate room houses the waxing equipment, and two offices are available for either storage or office space. It’s a bright space that people can wait comfortably in, socializing without feeling cramped.
Below the ski shop, a new first aid station is at the ready, just in case. Two beds and drawers of first aid supplies sit in the new medical room, which with its curtain and bamboo picture hanging in the corner could be mistaken for a bodywork establishment.
Not all the changes at the lodge will be visible to the eye: the generator that runs the T-bar will be tied into the lodge’s electrical system, allowing most of the building to have power even in the event of an outage. That’s one of the plans of things to come, said Eric Waterfield, who is also hoping to have the lodge open this summer in partnership with the ATV club. Waterfield, who volunteers a lot of time at Summit, would like to see the facility be used year-round in partnership with other community groups.
Volunteers were also the force that allowed the hill to stay open over the holidays as much as it did since its Boxing Day start. When a shortage of willing bodies on Jan. 1 and 2 looked like it would shut the hill, volunteers leaped to help, keeping it open and letting kids and families enjoy their days skiing and snowboarding before the reopening of school. And there is always room for more volunteers at the welcoming and friendly Summit Lake Ski Area.
